#unfortunately I don’t really have a knowledge base for American theatres older than that because I haven’t really been to any

[himblebo]

When you want to visit the Alhambra but mom’s like “we got the Alhambra at home”

[khowellperformance-blog]

Northern Soul Essay (Portfolio)

What is Northern Soul?

Northern Soul is a music and dance movement that was formed and created individually in Northern England, the English Midlands, Scotland and Wales. It was formed in the British mod scene in the 1960’s.

The music of the Northern Soul movement was extremely iconic.  The music mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music, this was due to its heavy beats and fast tempos, also known as Tamla Motown sound, and the music is one of the things that sparked off the movement’s popularity.

The initial term Northern Soul was initiated in a Covent Garden record shop “Soul City”.  The shop in question was run by Dave Godin, a journalist for the music magazine “Blues and Soul”. The term Northern Soul was first publicly used in one of Godin’s weekly article in the fore mentioned magazine. He later explained this when partaking in an interview with Chris Hunt for Mojo magazine that his reasoning behind the name was too help his employees at Soul City to differentiate between the more funk stylings of soul and the smoother Motown inspired pieces.

Some examples of the music were Gloria Jones’ “Tainted Love”, Jimmy Radcliffe’s “After tonight is over” and Dean Parish’s “I’m on my way”.

The Northern Soul movement was popular throughout the North of the United Kingdom, because of this there were a multitude clubs scattered across the UK.

The most popular clubs in England were:

The Twisted Wheel – Manchester

The Wigan Casino – Wigan

The Torch – Stoke-on-Trent.

Catacombs – Wolverhampton

The most popular clubs in Scotland were:

Clouds – Edinburgh.

The Music Hall – Aberdeen.

Marryat Hall – Dundee.

The Most popular clubs in Wales were:

Piranha Club & Lounge – Holyhead,

Pontardawe Arts Centre – Pontardawe.

Liquid Life – Cardiff.

What is a Stimulus?

A stimulus is an item or emotion used to aid creation when creating a performance piece. A lot of things can be used as stimuli, some examples that could be used are:

A quote. For example: “Sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something” could be used to create a scene in a school where someone is struggling and the teacher or a friend is helping to egg them on or to prove to them that they’re better than they think.

An image. For example: if you were given an image of an old house, you could use the image to create a piece of theatre based on the subject in the picture.

An animal. For example: if you were given a cat you could use the knowledge you have or could gain about the animal to use them to create your piece, maybe with you portraying the animal or about receiving the animal.

A person. For example: if you were given the celebrity Joey Essex you could do a piece based on him and your personal opinions of him and his apparent idiocy.

A time period. For example: if you were given the time period of World War 2 you would use that to create a scene based on World War 2.

One fact about Northern Soul.

The Clenched Raised fist symbol that has become commonly recognised within the Northern Soul Movement originally emanated from the 1960’s Black Power movement of the United States.

Evaluations on when you put the dance moves and facts together.

When we started putting our dance moves with our facts we found it difficult to start up the devising of our piece. In my group we have Myself, Georgie, Shannon, Dizai. The first day of devising our pieces I had damaged my knees and it mae it very difficult to do the moves so with our first piece we had timed it so that when I would read a fact that another member of our group had contributed, that person would start to perform Northern soul moves. I myself wasn’t performing the moves and I feel this was the biggest weakness in our piece, and I hated the piece so much, so after our feedback we went back began to work on changing it.

In our second try we were told about how talcum powder was used in the Northern soul movement, and because of this we decided that we would maintain me reading out the facts whilst the group would dance in time to the facts. This time however, we added a comical fall to symbolise the talcum powder making the floor slippery. By the end we would all be dancing. I still wasn’t feeling so happy with this piece so after we performed it once more we changed it up more so.

In our third try we were given two images to decide between to use as a stimulus; the first being an overcrowded Northern Soul club with the caption “Once upon a time in Wigan” and the other image being a picture of the shoes that were extremely popular for men in the Northern Soul movement. We decided to aim our piece more at Children and so we chose the “Once upon a time in Wigan” image to be our stimulus. We changed our setting to be in a club with friends, made our energy more heightened and made the fall more dramatic and of course we added the “once upon a time in Wigan” to our story. I was feeling a little better at this piece, however I feel it could have gone better.

For the Fourth try I was unfortunately absent during this lesson so I can’t make comment.

For the fifth try we decided to make it into a flashback scenario. Georgie and I were playing elderly grandparents, whilst Dizai and Shannon played our teenage grandchildren. We’re out on a walk around Manchester when we come across the old Twisted wheel club. Georgie and I start blurting out facts and getting all nostalgic whilst the grandchildren look on confused yet in awe. There’s then the flashback to when the grandparents were young and at the club, two younger people are watching them dance and ask to be taught. Shannon then slips on the talcum powder which leads us to explaining the talc. Dizai and Shannon then say their facts and we’re all dancing together. I really liked this piece however, the ages of the grandparents were criticized and so we decided to improve this.

Our sixth, and final idea, starts with Georgie and I sat on the sofa, playing parents, I’m reading a magazine and Georgie is watching television. Shannon and Dizai are sat flipping a bottle. This goes on for about ten seconds with me getting gradually more and more agitated before snapping at them to stop it and get on with their homework Shannon (playing Gloria) then answers back stating “What’s the point, it’s only boring Northern Soul.” This stuns Georgie and I as we start to defend the love of our youth. Georgie and I then stated that they’re named after Northern Soul artists “Gloria Jones” (artist of tainted love) and “Darrel Banks” (artist of open the door to your heart). We’re currently working on our flashback scene but we’re setting it up as though we’re telling them a story; starting with “Once upon a time in Wigan.”

3 strengths.

I feel that my first strength was my open mindedness when working with my new group.

I feel my second strength was my confidence in the piece despite not liking the initial idea of Northern Soul.

I feel my final strength was my projection, though in some areas it could improve.

3 weaknesses.

I feel that my first weakness was that at times I struggled to focus.

I feel that my second weakness was that I struggle to keep my cool with my group sometimes if I don’t feel like I’m being listened too when directing my group.

I feel that my final weakness was the fact that I’m not very adventurous with my movements.

3 Targets.

Remain calm.

Take Risks.

Keep my focus.

How did you use the image (Once upon a time in Wigan) as a stimulus?

Once upon a time in Wigan gave us the inspiration to help decide our target audience and to make our piece more in-depth. We also added it into our final piece to spark off our performance where the facts come into play.

How was Talcum Powder used in Northern Soul?

Talc was used in Northern soul to make the floors more slippery in order to aid with the twists, turns and slides in the movements as you had less friction to hold you back.

 Ask relatives questions on Northern Soul.

I couldn’t gather very much information about Northern Soul from my relatives as not many of them had been into Northern Soul or had even actually heard of it. However, what I did find out was that my Grandma when she was much younger used to work at the Twisted Wheel, unfortunately she has passed on so I couldn’t get any information from her. However, my Grandad recalls her coming home with a broken wrist after having to try and break up a fight outside.

Group feedback task.

 What did you learn about Northern Soul from the Shredded wheat advert?

From the shredded wheat advert I learnt the following:

New dance moves: in that I could see a wide variety of movements, using different levels and devising terms.

That they changed shoes upon arrival and departure: To ensure that they would remain in good quality and to ensure the shoes stay slippery to work with the talc to make the moves easier to perform.

The clothes were mostly bright colours: I feel this is rather self-explanatory, they used the colours to represent the joy they felt within their tightknit community of northern soul dancers.

Select/ Reject and edit task.

In the select, reject and edit task we decided to make an addition based on our year or level groups.

My year group, being Level 3, second years had to create a piece based on going into the club, the different cultures and the drug culture based around the clubs.

Sophie and I decided that we would be two cousins, however, I would be underage and using my older sister’s ID. We all decided that we would draw more focus to Sophie and I by adding a tablo or freeze-frame on everyone else. This we feel worked really well as it really drew attention to the conversation between us and increased the drama.

When Sophie and I finally got the front of the line, Sophie obviously got in without any questions cream pie asked, however, when Matt (playing a bouncer) asked for my ID he failed to believe it, which was where Sophie grabs my wrist and drags me through the door, I put my money in the box on the way past.

Later in the club Sophie’s friends are making jokes about my age, saying I’m not young enough. They then start offering me amphetamines, claiming they’re just sweets, chanting “take it, take it, take it!” with me backing away from them, before retreating to the bar to get a drink to only be confronted with the old woman who took the entrance fee, whom then starts telling me to take the amphetamines.